


Archangel

by fabrega



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mass Effect Fusion, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-29
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-25 12:02:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10763886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fabrega/pseuds/fabrega
Summary: The story of the vigilante sharpshooter who dispenses much-needed justice to the galaxy and the back-from-the-dead commander he'd follow anywhere.





	Archangel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [smarshtastic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smarshtastic/gifts), [deepsix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/deepsix/gifts).



> For deepsix, who breathed life back into this when I thought it was dead, and for smarshtastic, world's best beta and world's worst enabler. ♥

Gabe hates Omega. He could happily have gone his entire life without setting foot there--had, in fact, gone an entire life without doing so. This life, though, the one Talon had given him back without fucking asking, seems intent on sending him to Omega early and often. Amélie had put together a set of dossiers for him, people he could recruit for the big important galaxy-saving mission they'd given him, and _three_ of them had brought him to Omega. 

First, there'd been the Healer dossier. He'd plucked the Healer, an omnic, from a clinic in the slums; in the process, he'd helped to stave off a plague that had been afflicting Omega's downtrodden populace. (This almost felt like the kind of work Gabe had signed up to Overwatch to do, back before he'd died.) When Gabe had brought the Healer, Zenyatta, back to the ship, there had almost immediately been a scuffle between him and the Russian Gabe had retrieved from Korlus after that whole business with the tanks. From what Gabe understands, Zarya has every reason to be upset with omnics, but Gabe has no compunction about knocking a few heads together to get everybody to play nice on his ship.

Then, there'd been the Mercenary dossier. The big man--goes by "Roadhog", apparently--didn't talk much, but at least his recruitment had been less of a hassle than Zenyatta's; Gabe had been able to cash in a debt that had been owed to Talon instead of having to fight his way through any kind of angry crowd. It had almost been refreshing--but he'd still been on Omega.

Finally, he's back with the last Omega dossier, this one labeled _Archangel_. The dossier says he's a mercenary, a sharpshooter, and tactically brilliant. Mei-Ling Zhou, the woman who runs Omega, meets Gabe in her club, Afterlife, and informs him that Archangel is mostly a pain in the ass, the self-appointed new sheriff in town who's fucking things up for the local gangs.

"He thinks he's fighting on the side of good," Mei says, with a mirthless laugh. "Reckless. Idealistic."

"Sounds perfect," Gabe says.

Mei directs him to the local gangs, who have put aside their differences and are working together to take Archangel down. They're recruiting people off the street for their attack, people like Gabe and Roadhog and Zenyatta, which Gabe decides to use to his advantage. He gets himself recruited, takes their transport and their intel, sabotages their attack plans as best he can. He asks around about Archangel, hoping to find out more about the mystery man Talon wants him to recruit, but nobody seems to know anything concrete--just that he seems intent on screwing with the gangs' illegal dealings, and that he's exceptionally hard to kill.

When it's finally time to attack with the other freelance mercs, he takes them down instead of Archangel, making his way into Archangel's hideout and hoping that Archangel realizes that Gabe and his team are on his side.

They make their way through the hideout and up to the perch from where Archangel has been taking potshots at the freelance mercs. (He had winged Gabe, once or twice on their way in.)

"Archangel?" Gabe asks.

The sharpshooter holds up a hand, takes three shots with his pistol in quick succession at the mercs--Gabe thinks it might be, but doesn't dare hope--and then takes off his tac helmet and shakes loose his hair--and it _is_ , it's Jesse McCree. He'd been part of the Overwatch team Gabe had worked with before, back before he'd died; they'd saved the Citadel together. Gabe wouldn't have ever expected to find him in a place like this.

"Gabriel Reyes," McCree says, hope and wonder threading its way through his voice, "I thought you were dead."

"McCree, what the hell are you doing here?" Gabe asks.

McCree shrugs, looking away. Gabe wants to say _I know you know better than this_ , but the way McCree seems unable to meet his eyes makes it pretty obvious that he knows too.

"You doing alright?" Gabe asks instead.

"Yeah... Yeah. Ain't had much in the way of friendly faces in a while. It's good to see you, boss." Jesse runs a hand through his hair, still looking away. He sounds bone-tired, in a way that makes something in Gabe ache too. Every merc and gang member Gabe had talked to on his way here had said Archangel had been holed up here for a while. Gabe hadn't realized until now what a toll holding out this long must have been taking on him. "Been doing my best on my own, but you know how it can be."

Gabe stops and takes another, closer look at Jesse. It's been years since he last saw him--he's been dead in the meantime--but Jesse's hair is longer than Gabe remembers, his body leaner, his face somehow older in a way the years don't quite account for. _It's like he hasn't been taking care of himself_ , Gabe thinks, and his stomach twists as he realizes that's probably exactly what's happened.

He's more resolved than ever now to get him out of here safely.

All of the gangs on Omega are between them and the way they came in, though. "Don't suppose you had an exit strategy," Gabe says, not quite a question, his voice gentler than he means it to be.

Jesse finally looks up, chuckles sourly and shakes his head. "Exit strategies ain't really how I saw this thing turning out. Now that you're here, I'm open to suggestions."

So Gabe lays out a plan, and their escape goes mostly according to it, right up until the point where the gunships arrive and Jesse takes a painful blast from one of them full-on. Gabe hears the sickening sound of rending flesh and bone, and Jesse screams and drops to the floor. There's no time to panic, though, no time to even think; if they don't take care of the gunship, none of them will make it out of here, never mind Jesse. Gabe stands over Jesse's fallen form and mows down the mercs who come near, his fear and anger bright in his chest.

When the hideout is finally cleared, Gabe drops to his knees next to Jesse and stares. He hears Zenyatta's voice, far away in his ears, saying that he can get McCree stable for now but they need to get him to the ship as soon as possible, and he reaches out without thinking to brush his fingers across what remains of Jesse's left arm.

.

"You didn't tell me Archangel was McCree," Gabe says quietly as Amélie leans up against the cabinets in the ship's mess next to him. He doesn't look at her, just keeps staring across at the closed windows of the infirmary. Jesse's in there now with the doctor, and nobody will tell Gabe how bad it is.

"I didn't know for sure," Amélie says, "And I didn't want to get your hopes up. What would you have done differently, if you'd known?"

Gabe makes a frustrated noise. "If I'd known, I could've gone after him sooner, maybe I could've kept this from happening--"

"It's not your fault," Amélie says. Gabe looks over at her now; her arms are folded and she's got a faraway look on her face. "You can't save everyone."

He says: "Saving everyone, isn't that why you brought me back?"

He does not say: _saving him, that would have been enough._

.

They're in the conference room discussing their next move when the door slides open and--there's Jesse. His left sleeve is rolled up to above his elbow, and Gabe's eyes travel down to where his left arm ends in a shiny new metal forearm and hand. Jesse looks nervous, and his metal fingers twitch against his thigh in a familiar restless rhythm.

Gabe's heart leaps into his throat.

Amélie looks between Gabe and Jesse and politely excuses herself. Gabe's not sure how much she knows, how much Talon knows, about him, his crew, his...personal life; he doesn't want to ask because he doesn't want to know. He's got a feeling that they know enough, though, given the speed at which Amélie vacates the room.

"Didn't expect to see you up and about so soon," Gabe says carefully.

"Commander Reyes needs me. What else could I do?" Jesse pauses, gives Gabe a scrutinizing look. "Is it really you?"

Gabe nods. "It's really me."

Jesse gives Gabe a small, lopsided smile, steps forward into Gabe's space and raises his right hand to ghost his thumb over the cracks in Gabe's cheek. The movement disturbs the smoke that seems to breathe from the fissures in his skin, moving it in strange patterns that Gabe can see in his peripheral vision. 

"You look like shit, boss--more than usual, even."

Gabe grins and tilts his head into Jesse's almost-touch, almost-touching him back. "I hear that some people find scars attractive."

"I'm sure I don't know anybody like that," Jesse says, teasing. He pulls his hand away. "So these rumors I heard about you being dead?"

Gabe shrugs. "I was. Didn't take."

"Also heard you're working for Talon now--any truth to that?"

"I'm not working _for_ them, I'm working _with_ them."

Jesse steps back from Gabe a little, looks him right in the eye. "To be clear, this is the same Talon we ran down during the Overwatch days, right? The ones we had to put down because they were doing terrible, brainwash-y things?"

"I'm not going to be doing terrible things. And if I try, you'll be here to stop me, right?"

Jesse looks away. "If someone has to do it, guess it makes sense it would be me."

"I trust you," Gabe says. He feels like he's said something wrong, but he can't figure out what it is.

Jesse laughs quietly, still doesn't look at Gabe. "Just like old times, then."

.

"My door is always open," Gabe tells the crew, but Jesse never comes to see him. Jesse accompanies him out on pretty much every mission; he has Gabe's back as he rescues Freedom's Progress and runs into Jack Morrison again, stands at his side while he recruits the Junker, the Architect, the Ninja. Gabe gets used to the feeling of Jesse at his back, the silly things Jesse shouts when they're out in the field surrounded by enemies, the way Jesse stands a little too close and bumps up against his hip as they stand through another interminable elevator ride. Still, where he expects Jesse to turn up in their downtime, in his personal life, there's nothing.

Gabe finds him in the ship's forward battery, studying a tablet, swaying a little in time with the hum of the ship's engines. He looks up when Gabe enters, puts the tablet aside and stands to greet him.

"Reyes! To what do I owe the pleasure?" Jesse asks, moving to lean carefully on the console for the main gun.

"Can't I just want to talk to you?"

Jesse shrugs. "You haven't so far, but sure."

Gabe feels his face go hot. "I've been--" he gestures vaguely around himself, at the ship and this whole situation, "--kind of busy, galaxy to save and all that." _I didn't want to force anything_ , he thinks, wishing he could say it. _I didn't want to assume. I wanted to give you space._

"I'd been meaning to talk to you anyway," Jesse says.

"My door's been open," Gabe says, trying and failing to not make the statement sound too pointed.

Jesse gives him a brief, indecipherable look before launching into his story: after Gabe's death, unmoored, he'd drifted to Omega. He'd wanted to do good and there'd been so little of it there, so he'd done it the best way he'd known how, the way Gabe had taught him: he'd assembled a little team of people who'd wanted to change things for the better and led them into dark places, trying to bring the light. Gabe's chest feels like it's going to burst open with pride and affection, and then Jesse says: "But."

He trails off, and when he doesn't say anything further, Gabe asks, "What happened?"

"They're all dead now." Jesse turns away from Gabe, facing down into the forward battery, and his voice goes flat and cold. "They're all dead, except for Edwards, the asshole who killed them, and me, the asshole who let him."

"You didn't 'let' anything happen, Jesse, I'm sure--"

Jesse slams his hands down on the console, and the console's glass top shatters under his left one. Shards of glass fly up, raining down onto the floor of the battery as the gun itself makes a slightly worrying noise.

From a station on a nearby wall, the ship's AI, ATHENA, starts to inquire about the situation, but Gabe shushes her immediately.

Jesse still has his back to Gabe. "You weren't there, Gabe. I shouldn't have tried to be you, but you _weren't there_. You _died_ , and you don't get to just waltz back into my life and have everything be--okay. Have it be the same."

Gabe steps forward and puts a careful hand on Jesse's shoulder; he hears the console glass crunch under Jesse's fingers.

"The reason I'm telling you all this is because I've been trying to track Edwards down for a while, and I've finally found him. I know we're on a tight schedule, and I am absolutely going to be here when everything goes down, but..." He turns back to Gabe and gives him a tight smile. "I'd hoped I could take a few days before then. There's justice needs dispensing."

"Of course," Gabe says. "Of course. I'll--I'll come with you, if you'd like."

"Would you? I didn't want to ask, but--"

"Of _course_. You've got my back, I've got yours," Gabe says, and when Jesse smiles this time, it nearly reaches his eyes.

.

Gabe stands between Edwards and Jesse's sniper perch and suddenly, he knows--he can't let Jesse do this.

Jesse's voice is in his ear on the comms, sounding more than a little annoyed. "Reyes, move your ass, I will shoot you if I have to--"

"You wouldn't." 

"Don't fucking tempt me."

Gabe takes a deep breath, tries not to think about the laser sight he imagines he can feel on his back. "Do you trust me?"

Jesse doesn't answer, just lets out a heavy, angry breath.

"McCree. Do you trust me?"

"With my life, Gabe. You know I do. I always have."

"I'm not moving," Gabe says, letting out a breath of his own. He shifts forward slightly, making sure he remains between Jesse's sniper perch and the place in the crowd they both know Edwards is. "You're better than this."

"I am not having this conversation with you right now," Jesse snaps. "I'll see you back on the ship." Gabe can imagine the way he throws his hands up in frustration, the little twitch at the corner of his eye.

Gabe waits what feels like a reasonable amount of time before following Edwards into the crowd.

Jesse's waiting for him when he gets back to the ship, leaned up against the outside of the airlock. His eyes drift down to Gabe's bloodied knuckles, and his mouth quirks up. "I thought we were better than this," he says.

"You are. Never said I was."

Jesse takes Gabe's right hand in his own, holds eye contact with Gabe as he lifts it to his lips and kisses each knuckle in turn. The pressure of each kiss, sweet and sore at the same time, is thrilling, and Gabe can't look away.

.

Gabe's in his quarters that night, sorting through his messages at his private terminal, when he hears the door open. He turns, and Jesse is standing there. (He'd told ATHENA, a long time ago, that Jesse always got automatic entry to his quarters unless he specifically said otherwise, but it's a permission that's never been used until now.)

Jesse wanders in, a slender bottle of what looks like bourbon in one hand. He peers around the room, looking faintly impressed. "Nice place you've got here."

"I can't keep the fish alive to save myself, but otherwise I've got no complaints."

Jesse saunters over to set the bottle on Gabe's desk, saunters right into Gabe's space and stays there, close enough to reach out and touch.

"Well," Gabe amends quietly, holding very still, "Maybe the one complaint. It seems a little big sometimes for just me."

"Thank you for today." Gabe blinks at Jesse in surprise. "I'm not used to anyone having my back like that."

"I always have," Gabe says, and then he pauses, remembers the years he hadn't, the years he couldn't. "I'm sorry. I should have been there."

Jesse gives him an uneasy smile. "You died, Gabe, it's not like you did it on purpose."

"I should have been there," Gabe repeats.

"You're here now."

" _You're_ here now," Gabe says. He reaches out, laces his fingers between Jesse's metal ones.

"I didn't think you still wanted me. I'm--" Jesse stops, gestures with his free hand at himself: the leanness, the long hair, the metal arm.

"You're Jesse McCree," Gabe says, not even trying to keep the wonder and adoration from his voice. "Archangel, handsome vigilante, dispenser of justice in an unjust galaxy. The universe has given you so much shit, and here you are, still trying to do good. Of course I want you."

Jesse pulls his fingers free, puts one hand on Gabe's waist and threads the other through Gabe's hair, tugging him close and kissing him. It's even better than Gabe remembers, and Gabe grasps at Jesse like he's never going to let go again.

.

"So I'm almost afraid to ask," Jesse says, later, when they're lying tangled together in Gabe's bed, Gabe feeling content in a way he's not sure he has since sometime before he woke up in that Talon facility, "But what exactly did you do to Edwards?"

Gabe chuckles. "Spectre secret," he says, twisting closer to Jesse, his head resting on Jesse's chest, his neck craned back so he can gaze up at Jesse's face. "He wishes I'd let you shoot him, that's for sure. It would've been one clean shot, right between the eyes. Instead he got dropped at the closest security station, where I made sure he confessed to his crimes."

Jesse lets out a breathy laugh and hugs Gabe even closer. "Y'know, the galaxy doesn't deserve you."

"The galaxy's stuck with me, whether it likes it or not." Gabe smiles and nuzzles into Jesse's neck. "And even if it didn't, you do."

"It's nice to have something go right for once," Jesse says into his hair. "I'll take it."

Gabe's comm buzzes at him from the bedside table, undoubtedly something important that Commander Reyes ought to see to, but he reaches over and shuts it off without answering. The galaxy may be stuck with him, but the galaxy can wait.


End file.
